Smile Like You Mean It
by Atomic Lightbulb
Summary: Ryou Bakura is breaking, Yugi. He can't fight the spirit forever... Some blood One-shot.


"And the look on Anzu's face, Bakura! You should have seen it!" Yugi let out a laugh and his puzzle bounced up and down with him.

**The Puzzle. Take the puzzle.**

_No! Nononono._

Ryou's hands clenched around his wrist, nails digging deep into his skin. Tighter and tighter and tighter –.

**The puzzle. Now.**

"Oi! Bakura-kun, you're bleeding!" said Yugi, reaching across the lunchroom table. He took Ryou's bloody wrist into one hand and pulled back the sleeve on his shirt, revealing at least twenty different bruises.

"Bakura!" Yugi gasped. "Who did this to you?"

**I will not tolerate defiance, yadonushi. **

_You're not real!_

"Bakura!" Yugi said again, shaking the albino.

Ryou looked up, dazed. "Hmm…Yugi? What – I? No one did this to me, Yugi! You know how clumsy I can be!"

Force a smile. Just one smile, Ryou thought to himself, Just smile like you mean it and he'll let you go. Get away from it, you need to get away. Run away…far, far away.

**You can't run away from yourself.**

He could feel it, whatever it was, already. Swelling out from the center of his chest, where that cursed ring's spikes dung into his skin. Pushing out from all angles, claiming his body, forcing him out. It was growing stronger and Ryou – Ryou couldn't fight its power forever.

**You're catching on. Take the puzzle and dispose of the boy.**

_No! I won't. Iwontiwontiwont._

"I have to go!" he said frantically, thrusting himself off the table. "The blood…I have to clean it up…"

"I'll come with you!" Yugi said standing up. Another wave of it, that power pounding out from the ring. Oh god he didn't have long!

"No!" he screamed and then regained his composure, "Honest, Yugi, I'll be fine,"

Ryou smiled. (But didn't mean it).

Yugi's lower lip trembled, but slowly sat back down. And that was all Ryou needed.

He was running – no sprinting – across campus, to the boy's bathroom in building three. The one that was always empty. The door flew open, and barely had enough time to slam shut before Ryou had his shirt off, trying desperately to rip the ring out of his skin.

**I grow tired of your constant fighting. You will help me.**

_Shut up! Shutupshutshutupshutup._

The ring tore out of his skin and the blood began to flow freely. Ryou, panting, collapsed onto himself.

**Oh look, you've hurt yourself.**

The albino's eyes widened.

_Not possible…_

**You should know by now I'm not that easy to get rid of. I'm here, with you, **_**forever**_**. Isn't that what you wanted? To end those lonely nights…**

Ryou's face twisted into a smirk. A smirk that did not belong to him.

_Stop it! Get out of my body!_

**Our body, yadonushi. I pay my rent.**

Eyes red from holding back tears, Ryou saw the ring resting on his bare chest. He let out a strangled cry.

_Oh god, why? Whywhywhywhy._

That last thought was meet with a laugh, low and cruel. It took all of Ryou's strength to look up at the mirror his eyes staring back at him. Hard, garnet eyes filled with a mixture of disgust, loathing and amusement.

They were his eyes! They were, they were, they were. Because he was the only person in this room, and his were they only eyes looking in that mirror and he was the only soul in his body!

**You do realize how flawed your logic is, don't you?**

"NO!" He screamed (if only to hear his own voice) and lunged at the mirror. His reflection shattered. The shards of glass dug deep into his closed fist.

**There's no reason to cry.**

Ryou slumped down against the wall, tears mixing with the blood from his hands as he tried to wipe them away. The pain, Ryou told himself shutting his eyes tight, I'm crying because of the pain.

**We both know you're lying.**

Ryou whimpered. The pushing was back, and the pulling was starting. He could feel himself being drain, slowly sucked away. With strength that wasn't his own; he stood up and proceeded to put his shirt on.

_No…_

But even he could tell the words held as much power as a summer breeze.

"Bakura?" Yugi called, as he knocked on the door. "You alright?"

"I'll be there in just a second, Yugi!" he said. No, no he didn't. He hadn't said that. Something else that sounded like him – but wasn't him.

_No…please…_

His body turned on the faucet, washing the blood off his hand and face. The shirt he had been wearing had taken care of the blood on his chest.

The pushing had stopped and Ryou felt the pulling becoming less and less. Just as his sense became less and less, his thoughts became less and less.

Is this dying?

_No. _

His body looked up at the mirror, but now instead of cold eyes, the reflection showed large, red broken eyes. Now those were his eyes.

_Nonononono._

The him that wasn't him gave Ryou a smile, a real smile, one that touched his eyes. A smile that this other him meant.

**Hush now, yadonushi. I make a better you than you do.**

The other him turned off the faucet and exited the bathroom.

"Bakura," Yugi eyed him askance, "You look better,"

His body chuckled. "I feel better! Just needed to clean my wounds,"

Yugi frowned, suspicion still bright in his violet eyes.

The other him smiled (that smile that even Ryou himself couldn't fake) and Yugi, after the longest of pauses, smiled back. Smiling always meant that people stopped asking questions.

The pulling stopped, and Ryou knew he couldn't stay any longer.

_Oh, Yugi. I'm sorry._

"So Yugi – tell me more about your puzzle?"

And Ryou slipped into the sweet abyss that came with loss of control.

* * *

Well, my oneshot/drabble things have gotten long - is that a good thing? This is rated T for blood, but I wasn't very descriptive, so that means it shouldn't be M right? Tell me if you think the rating should go up. And, as always, please review!


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